Executive Director’s Update
AFRECS Board member Rev. James Hubbard and I visited Sudan and South Sudan in August. It was my third visit to South Sudan since 2018. This issue focuses on that portion of our visit. I saw a dynamic young church in operation. It counts 4 million souls. That is twice the number of Episcopalians/Anglicans in the United States. And it is growing rapidly. It has over 60 dioceses and bishops spread throughout the reaches of South Sudan. It is led since 2018 by Primate Justin Badi Arama.
In addition to the leadership, the Episcopal Church of South Sudan is “peace-operational” on the ground. The Mothers’ Union is active in many dioceses. Its energetic national coordinator, Mama Harriet Baka, is promoting literacy and livelihoods for women throughout the country and raising up local leaders. In the diocese of Terekeka, in Central Equatoria, at the tiny parish of Luyari, Mothers’ Union facilitators teach local women for a year to read and write in Bari, the local language. They go on to teach micro finance so that the women can start small businesses of their own – bakeries or tea shops, for example.
The South Sudan Development and Relief Agency (SSUDRA) has a dynamic new leader, Light Wilson Aganwa, experienced in and deeply committed to development. SSUDRA is working in livelihood generation, water, sanitation and health, focusing on areas that have experienced much violence — Jonglei, Unity State, Western Bahar al-Ghazal, and Eastern Equatoria.
I returned to the US excited about what God is doing with the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. I hope you will continue and even expand your support for AFRECS in its funding of the critical peacebuilding work going on there.
Prayer
The quiet sympathies of good people will not bring about true good for all people.
What of our own power, privilege, and comfort are we willing to sacrifice to bring about full human becoming for all people?
Broaden our sacred imagination.
Free us in the places where we are bound. Help us see big enough ways to give all people what they need.
Give us sacred intolerance for prejudice, exclusion, repression, and violence.
May we treat the needs of others as holy.
-Prayers of the People adapted from Abolitionist Spirituality by Willie Dwayne Francois III
Editors’ Note:
In this issue we excerpt very personal experiences and encounters from the August 2022 dispatches from the Sudans by a parish priest and a retired ambassador. Future E-blasts will report what they learned at the Rokon, South Sudan site of the new Episcopal University, in Khartoum, about an Arabic-language seminary, and developments at a burgeoning school for orphans outside Juba.
Contact us at afrecs@afrecs.org if you are inspired to join in one of the efforts they describe.
What the Priest Heard: From Mothering to Gender-based Violence
by James A. Hubbard, August 21-22, 2022
Mother Harriet Baka sat Dane and me down in her Mothers’ Union at the Juba Provincial headquarters on August 21 to prepare us for Terekeka.
This petite, redoubtable woman explained that when literacy training was validated as effective with non-literate groups, the pilot sites were Khartoum, Juba, and Renk. The Province gave them five years—to foster literacy, numeracy, and savings groups in the first three years, then to address trauma healing and Gender-based Violence in the last two years. “We started slow,” says Mother Harriet, “because we needed experience in how to train facilitators and in facilitating groups. We started with twelve groups in Juba, and a like number in Rajaf district. We wanted an awareness of the power of salvation, so we started with the provincial leadership and diocesan leaders and then began to train.” “ AFRECS began contributing funds in 2017 to support the effective Anglican group Five Talents in this work.
The following morning we set out for Terekeka, some seventy-three kilometers out of Juba. Picked up by Light Wilson of South Sudanese Development and Rehabilitation Assistance (SSUDRA), we met Bishop Paul Modi on the outskirts of Juba, a few minutes before arriving at the first security checkpoint. The Bishop, who had been very clear that he would ride only with his wife and driver, met with the police by himself. He is a large, tall, imposing figure, and I was glad I wasn’t part of the security force. He was back in a very few minutes and, without saying a word to those of us in the following car, his lead car took off. At every other security point, he simply looked pointedly at the security personnel and we were waved on through.
Cars, trucks, goats and cattle all shared the highway. The herds belong to the Mandari people, who are semi-nomadic, and their boys accompany the herds. The Mandari women are persistently visible walking long distances along the highway seeking drinking water. Cattle are central to their culture, being their wealth, their source of milk and food, and the vital resource needed to pay the bride price in order to marry. Cattle are virtually part of individual families as well as a tribal responsibility.
At the end of the highway we came to a large roundabout and headed off on a dirt and gravel road for the last few bouncy kilometers into Terekeka. At the church compound, we were welcomed by forty or fifty singing children, ten men, and twenty ululating women with leis for Dane, Mother Jessica (an associate of Mother Harriet’s), who had accompanied us from Juba, and me. In our stiff American way, we mingled and greeted. After prayer and a song or two, we retired to the bishop’s office and heard from four or five women leaders and about a dozen chiefs and elders
The Chief of Tali spoke movingly about the difference trauma healing and literacy training were making in their church, their communities, and their families. (I was wondering what the men really knew about this training, only to discover later that men were always included in these groups. Though predominantly made up of women, the groups usually have around 40% men.) Lack of transport to rural areas of the diocese, conflict, and the need for peace and reconciliation were among the issues discussed. One hundred fifty-five young men were killed in a recent incident. People clash because of cattle raiding, disagreements, rape, taking children for soldiers, and killing. The entire country is traumatized in so many ways.
Women are being empowered. Many are the stories both Harriet and Nora have heard about women with this training becoming active about serious issues in their communities, calling the attention of elected officials and demanding action. No longer are they shy and quiet women, but individuals who stand up and say with a gleam of pride in their eyes what needs to be addressed.
By teaching and encouraging prayer and the study of scripture, these groups help people learn ethical practice for the family and the community, heal from the serious psychological harm done within a country that has been in the midst of war for decades, and, most importantly, become part of the loving, healing, trusting community of Jesus within the Church.
One surprise occurred when the Bishop, directly asked me to come back in the future to spend a week helping to train his clergy, who are evidently hungry for education. It was a humbling request, but immediately I saw the immense value it could bring, particularly if I could bring three or four other clergy with me.
Men’s behavior within their families has changed. Many men, particularly those who have taken the training, speak up with pride for the women in their households and their community. Traditionally, men in this culture have nothing to do with a baby once it is made. But through these groups they learn the importance of a father holding his infant child, helping with his children, and helping his wife with household matters in ways that revolutionize marriage and family life. As they explained this, these women became animated in helping us to understand the changes.
We were undone by the careful, thorough efforts which are having such wonderful success in perhaps the poorest of neighborhoods in the poorest of countries in the world.
A Declaration of Faith
You, O God, are Holy Spirit.
You empower us to be your gospel in the world.
You reconcile and heal; you overcame death.
What the Ambassador Saw: Mothers’ Union and Trauma Healing
by Dane F. Smith, Jr.
When facilitators from the Mothers’ Union (MU) went out into villages last year, they discovered with some surprise that the women weren’t shy about telling their stories of gender-based violence (GBV). The work of the Mothers’ Union consists of preaching, of course, and inviting women to form savings circles, but their starting point has been literacy — teaching women to read and write in their own languages. Then numeracy and microfinance were added, guided by trainers from Five Talents. Women are the breadwinners in South Sudan, because the men have no work, and the cost of living is very high. Mothers’ Union has also been dealing with emotional trauma, which is pervasive after generations of war.
Mama Harriet Baka, the redoubtable National Coördinator of the Mothers’ Union in South Sudan, with her right hand Jessica Lukudu and other lieutenants, has begun to engage bishops’ spouses in confronting gender-based violence.
Now the Mothers’ Union is addressing gender-based violence. “So many women have been raped,” said Mama Harriet Baka, National Coördinator of the Mothers’ Union (MU), when we met in her office August 22. Besides making the bishops aware of GBV”, Mama Harriet said, “the spouses of bishops need to be empowered. They feel a lot of frustration.”
Working with the Anglican Alliance, she spoke to 58 of them in Arabic at the recent Lambeth Conference. Caroline Welby, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, did a retreat with them. Now returned home, Harriet plans to begin working with the spouses, starting with a few at a time.
Harriet said that God was blessing the MU in its work scattered throughout South Sudan. MU doesn’t have the resources to go to all 64 dioceses, but the dioceses are formed into clusters in the 8 internal provinces. MU now has an office in every cluster
On Gender-based Violence, the Mothers’ Union starts with sensitizing the leadership “from the Provincial Secretary on down,” making the bishops aware of GBV. Emphasizing that women are also created in the image of God, they teach that abuse of wives, torture, and rape are inconsistent with that truth. The MU elicits stories ranging from the groups which cover the unavailability of schooling, to abuse in the family, to rape by military personnel. MU attempts to make clear what is fairness and justice and to give hope. A major issue is how to handle violence in families without making the situation worse. MU is trying to illuminate men, as well as women, on the nature of gender-based violence (GBV) and its consequences. MU has confronted military perpetrators, who sometimes react with tears. Significantly, MU is collecting and documenting these stories.
GBV training is directed to men and women. In addition to teaching that beating your wife is wrong, it enjoins against child marriage and forced marriage. It encourages the men to share in household chores like getting water and collecting wood. In traditional Bari culture, the man never holds a baby. GBV training encourages them to hold and share in the care of children. Sarah told us that the incidence in Terekeka of GBV is very high. Girls are married off very young to gain dowry. Women and girls are often raped by military personnel when they gather firewood or collect water. Challenges include difficult passage to the centers in the rainy season along impassible roads. Intermittent internet is also a problem.
The Redoubtable Harriet Baka. We met with Mama Harriet Baka, National Coordinator of the Mothers Union (MU), in her office August 22. Her right hand, Jessica Lukudu, who in 2020 traveled with me to Renk, was there with the other lieutenants.
Mama Harriet Baka
We were welcomed at the diocesan compound with women ululating. We proceeded into the church, where about 50 were gathered. The Bishop welcomed us in Bari and I said a few words in Arabic about AFRECS, our work with the Mothers Union, and our pleasure at visiting Terekeka. We repaired to the diocesan office with a smaller group of 12-15 (five women) which included a local chief, Canon Agnes, Provost of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, two male canons, the “development coordinator,” and Mothers Union officers led by Coordinator Mama Nora.
Bishop Paul is the second bishop of Terekeka, created as a diocese in 2009. (HIs predecessor is buried in a tomb on the property.) The country of Terekeka has 10 payyams. In the diocese there are 9 archdeaconries, 65 priests, including some women and 43 parishes. Capacity building of priests is his highest priority; only 5 are educated and the rest are “vernacular pastors.” Terekeka is a diocese of 15-20% literacy. The area is affected by climate change which has brought unprecedented floods for the last three years.
Lunch in MU office
We said good-bye to the diocese and drove about 5km with Bishop and MU trainers to make a very brief stop at the learning center at Luyari Parish, a small building. Local facilitators were introduced: Rev. Peter Leggay, Rev. Justin Kalong, and Santino Lak. Then we made a quick return to Juba.
Learning center at Luyari Parish
We are deeply grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, so needed in these challenging times. We hope you will make a contribution to support our work with the people of the Sudans and offer a prayer for their nations. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.
This issue was compiled by AFRECS Board members Anita Sanborn and Richard Jones. AFRECS craves your comments, corrections, and future contribution of photos, news, or reflection.